A study from the Institute of General Pathology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli, 00168 Rome, Italy; Department of Oncology and Molecular Medicine – Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 00161 Rome, Italy; National Cancer Institute Regina Elena, 00144 Rome, Italy shows that “Integrin a7 Is a Functional Marker and Potential Therapeutic Target in Glioblastoma.” This study was published in the 9 June 2017 issue of the journal “Cell Stem Cell” [One of the best journals in Stem cell Biology with an I.F of 22.268 plus] by Prof. Ruggero De Maria, Tobias L. Haas, and others.

Another study from the Centre for Cancer Research, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 852, China; and State Key Laboratory of Oncology in Southern China, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou 510060, China shows that “Integrin a7 is a functional cancer stem cell surface marker in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma.” This study was published in the 7 December 2016 issue of the journal “Nature communications” [One of the best journals in General Biology with an I.F of 11.329 plus] by Prof.Guan XY, Ming XY and others.

Given that: (i) each year nearly 14 million people are diagnosed with cancer globally; (ii) metastasis is common to all forms of cancers; (iii) metastasis is the principle reason for most of the cancer deaths; (iv) even intense multimodal treatment saves only less than 50% of metastatic patients; (iv) our understanding is incomplete in terms of down stream molecular targets and the oncogenic/malignant pathways involved in metastatic cancers; (v) cancer deaths globally are expected to be doubled in the next decade; (vi) cancer treatment causes the highest economic loss compared to all the known causes of death worldwide, there is an urgent need to find: (i) a way to activate patients’ immune system against metastatic tumors (Cancer immunotherapy); (ii) anti-cancer drugs that target cancer stem cells that aid in tumor relapse and resistance; (iii) anti-cancer drugs that target cell adhesion molecules that aid in metastatic spread; (iv) a cheaper alternative to the existing expensive anticancer drugs; (v) a side-effect-free natural product-based drug; (vi) increase the therapeutic index of anti-cancer drugs; and (vii) a way to effectively treat and prevent metastatic progression and relapse of advanced/drug-resistant cancers.

This study suggests a small-molecule based therapy for metastatic glioblastoma and oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Ivermecitin has been shown to function as an anti-proliferative agent. However, the detailed mechanistic insights is yet to emerge.